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Trinity Christian is loaded with returners

The Lions got through their first official season as a TAPPS Division III program and earned three wins along the way. They’re ready to push further with 18 returning letter winners from a team that scraped into the bi-district round of the playoffs.

A record of .500 or better and a second consecutive postseason appearance is the goal at Trinity Christian.

“The coaching staff and I are very confident,” first-year head coach Abel Rodriguez said. “Even though we did have a big coaching change with coach Chris Lackey, I think we’re striving not to have a repeat of 3-7 because of what we did in the offseason and this summer. I would say if we’re not on the winning end of .500 or more, it would be a disappointment.”

Trinity Christian has the district’s most experienced team. Only three seniors graduated off of last year’s roster.

Just compare the Lions to defending District 1 champion Lubbock Christian. The Eagles only have six returning starters.

But it all has to come together.

The biggest thing which held Trinity Christian from more wins last season was that it was outscored at almost exactly two-to-one ratio through its 11-game season. It’s a good bet experience will be able to up the offensive numbers and drop the defensive points surrendered.

Junior quarterback Cade Crawford returns to guide an offense that returns 11 of the 12 receivers that caught at least one pass a season ago. Leading rusher Justin Franco is now a sophomore.

Benjamin Duriex returns for his senior season and was the squad’s leading tackler last year. The leading turnover creators are back in the fold as well.

“We have some experience with what it’s like at this level now,” Rodriguez said. “The program being so new, there just hasn’t been a lot of time or games for success at this point. That’s our biggest take from last year going into this year. We’re going into this season knowing we have a lot of experience. It wasn’t all good experience, but it was valuable experience.”